Heavy rain, compliance, AI and voice - a brief talk about the experience of the Token2049 conference

2024-04-21 16:51

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Original author: Wang Yonghuan, Web3 investor

This is my first time attending a Token2049 event. As a Web3 learner (yes, I always think this identity suits me best), I have two purposes for attending the conference:

1. To feel the atmosphere of Web3 up close. In Web3, the atmosphere is something that is hard to explain but particularly emphasized.

2. To understand the cutting-edge topics or narratives being discussed in the current industry, which is especially important in a rapidly changing industry.

The main Token2049 conference was held on April 18-19, but there have been various side events, small events and parties since April 15. As someone who used to work in a Web2 Internet company, the atmosphere of this conference is completely different. Generally speaking, Web3 events are conferences, but they are more like parties to meet friends. You can listen to speakers share their insights in the venue, or you can find a place to chat with people from different countries and regions in the world with a drink. Of course, if you have time in the evening, various organizers will have different parties, and you only need to take a beer to meet new friends. The atmosphere of casualness and freedom runs through the entire Web3 event.

In addition to casualness and freedom, when it comes to my feelings about the city of Dubai and the Token2049 topic discussion, I think it can be summarized with a few keywords:

Keyword 1: Heavy rain

If you are a participant in this industry, you must have seen the news of this rare heavy rain in Dubai from social media/friend circle. On April 16, Dubai experienced the largest single-day heavy rain since 1949, with a large number of luxury cars submerged in the water and the public transportation system paralyzed.

Dubai has always been known for its luxury and prosperity. Until April 18, the entire city was still partially or completely shut down. A rainstorm tested the sewers of this city that brings together the material life of mankind, and also exposed the fragility of wealthy cities.

If extended to the Web3 industry, this rainstorm is also very inspiring:

1. A sound system needs to take into account any low-probability risk and make plans for it, even if the probability of occurrence is really low. For example, when we are working on a Defi project - will we be aware of a risk with a very low probability, but because of its low probability of occurrence, we choose to ignore it with a fluke mentality?

2. A sound system must also be prepared for the emergence of black swans at any time. Now in a bull market, the overall atmosphere and sentiment will tend to be optimistic, but we need to be vigilant at all times, because in this industry, it is impossible to determine when black swan events will come and how they will appear. Cautious optimism is always better than blind optimism.

Keyword 2: Regulation and Compliance

Regulation and compliance are the words I heard most in Dubai this time. The first panel event at the main venue on April 18 was about regulation and compliance - Binance CEO Richard Teng and Bloq co-founder Matthew Roszak and other guests discussed their views on global regulation of the crypto industry. At the same time, when I communicated with different project parties, I could also feel their emphasis on industry supervision and compliance. For project parties, the issues they generally care about are: ① Which countries/regions have friendly supervision and compliance policies; ② How to obtain corresponding compliance licenses in these countries/regions, etc.

My feeling is that everyone has a consensus on the need for supervision and compliance in this industry. The difference in discussion is nothing more than the way and rhythm of supervision. After all, the regulatory policies of each country and region are different.

At the same time, this also makes me think about a question: Is there a contradictory relationship between obtaining high returns and the increasing compliance of the industry? For example, in the early stages of blockchain, due to the lag in supervision and compliance, there are many projects and individuals who have obtained rich returns. As the industry develops more and more standardized, will there be a myth of individuals or projects making fortunes quickly like in the past?

Keyword three: AI

In addition to supervision and compliance, AI is another hot word I heard at this Token2049 event. At the main conference of Token2049, guests including Near Protocol co-founder IIIia Polosukhin and io.net founder Ahmad Shadid discussed what can be done by combining AI and Web3 in decentralized intelligence. Similarly, about half of the projects I discussed outside the venue and at the party were related to AI, including AI distributed storage and computing, decentralized GPUs, intent-based AI applications, AI social networking and creator economy, etc. The popularity of AI+Web3 narrative is evident.

An interesting discovery is that in the past, when discussing Web3 mass adoption, people generally placed their hopes on GameFi and SocialFi, but this time, my feeling is that now everyone thinks that if Web3 is to be mass adopted, AI has a greater chance of success.

Keyword 4: Chinese discourse power

The Token2049 event was held very close to the Hong Kong Web3 Carnival Summit. The comparison between the two events has also become an interesting topic. After communicating with some Chinese practitioners, I found that everyone has two common feelings: ① The concentration of Chinese participants in the Token2049 event is not as high as that in the Hong Kong Carnival event (this is understandable, after all, Dubai is far from Greater China); ② There are differences in the focus of the discussion topics. For example, in the Hong Kong Carnival event, the topic of Bitcoin ecology was very popular, but in the Token2049 event, the discussion of this topic was relatively less popular.

Everyone is curious, is this like two different worlds?

This question is difficult to answer, and there is no way to determine it now. My opinion is:

From a practical point of view, Chinese people will definitely have their own discourse system in Web3.

On the one hand, many Chinese project entrepreneurs and investors now have good backgrounds, can speak fluent English, study and work abroad, and have a global mindset. At the same time, Chinese people themselves have the gene of "daring to take risks", so in the next ten years, I believe that more and more Chinese people will be active in the global technology competition arena.

On the other hand, there are many Chinese entrepreneurs in the Bitcoin ecosystem now, which is itself an effort and proof of building a discourse system.

From the perspective of vision, I think the Web3 industry should not be divided into any country/region, skin color or background. Because this industry emphasizes consensus, when consensus is reached, we are like-minded people, and we will not set restrictions on where you come from, your skin color, education/work background, etc. So from this perspective, whether Chinese or non-Chinese, we should weaken the differences in identity. After all, the emergence of new things like Bitcoin itself is breaking the barriers of traditional sovereign state boundaries.

The above keywords are my stronger feelings when participating in the Token2049 event this time. It should be noted that this is just my personal feeling, which will be subjective, so it cannot represent the thoughts of every participant. Secondly, at this Token2049 event, there are many topics that are discussed very enthusiastically, such as Depin, RWA, Bitcoin ETF, Restaking, etc. My above feelings cannot cover these topics one by one. But overall, activities like Token2049 can reflect the direction of the current Web3 industry hot narrative. Regardless of everyone's subjective feelings, I believe that through participating in the meeting, a common judgment will be formed on the industry's hot tracks and narratives.